He is almost as bad as Patrick Willis soft hands, Crabtree's inability to separate or make big plays, Alex Smith's inability to win big games or do anything other than manage games, and Kaepernicks inability to manage the clock.

All terrible, every one of them.

... and as bad as "Frank is getting too old" "Mike Iupati is not very good" and as horrible as Staley's screams

Originally posted by LifelongNiner:
I admit I have a soft spot for Whitner as well. On another team with lesser All-Pro's on defense, he'd probably be the star. He can easily go elsewhere this offseason and make some pretty good money. However, I'm hoping we can somehow resign him and he can continue to provide leadership in the secondary as well as mentoring Eric Reid and whatever safety we end up drafting next season.

Or he would be exposed. I think he is perfect for this team this year. Mentoring Reid, tough on running, and OK on coverage, but not his strength. Reid covers so much ground that Whitner is less exposed and can play closer to the line where he really excels. His intelligence is the key to his value. They need to try and groom a young guy to take his place though.

I think the reason Whitner was struggling before is cause Goldson wasn't a very good cover safety basically they had 2 hitters at safety with him and Goldson now that he has Reid who so far has shown he can cover and hit it's making Whitner a better player.

Originally posted by LifelongNiner:
I admit I have a soft spot for Whitner as well. On another team with lesser All-Pro's on defense, he'd probably be the star. He can easily go elsewhere this offseason and make some pretty good money. However, I'm hoping we can somehow resign him and he can continue to provide leadership in the secondary as well as mentoring Eric Reid and whatever safety we end up drafting next season.

Or he would be exposed. I think he is perfect for this team this year. Mentoring Reid, tough on running, and OK on coverage, but not his strength. Reid covers so much ground that Whitner is less exposed and can play closer to the line where he really excels. His intelligence is the key to his value. They need to try and groom a young guy to take his place though.

If someone is game planning against our defense, the secondary is the weakness. If you elect to not go after Whitner, who are you going after back there? You have to run a play and unfortunately because of the level of our D, he is going to look like one of the weak links. Put him on a team with an average defense as I said, and he'd be a star.

Originally posted by LifelongNiner:
If someone is game planning against our defense, the secondary is the weakness. If you elect to not go after Whitner, who are you going after back there? You have to run a play and unfortunately because of the level of our D, he is going to look like one of the weak links. Put him on a team with an average defense as I said, and he'd be a star.

Could be wrong but I'd probably go after the rookie first and then the weakest CB. Difficult to attack a [edit-strong] safety on this team with two middle LBs who can cover the middle. Not trying to attack Whitner but he is decent at best in coverage. Love his leadership though.

Edit: on second thought, not sure what I would attack...can't run on this team so I'd try to get single coverage for my receivers by doing clever things...sort of what I had hoped the niners would do this year. I would attack Whitner deep and try to pick or brush others. But the point I'm making is Whitner is not like the worst DB in the NFL...far from it.

Whitner's a beast, he plays tough and he lays it all on the line for his teamates every game. he may get beat sometimes but everyone does. ive seen him save a few touchdowns on his own already this year

Originally posted by LasVegasWally:
I thought the Rams game was Whitner's best of the season.

This. I was at the game and I'm not sure if it showed as much on TV but Whitner was all over the field. He looked like he was playing fast AND bringing the wood as usual. He doesn't get near the respect he deserves on this site IMO. He may not be elite in coverage but he's an all around player and a very good one at that. He was killing the Rams.

Originally posted by crabman82:
TWHITNER ‏@DonteWhitner1m
Well tweeps they fined me 21k for that hit....

Goodall is insane. I am surprised Harrison or Goldson don't slap this ***ch. 21k for text book hitting, guy has been taught that his whole life and now at 28 he is being told by people who have never played the game that he is wrong? Weird

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